Pshycology of Asthma

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Recommended: Short note on asthma

In September of 1991, I had a severe asthma attack. The first couple of sentences I heard when I woke from passing out earlier were, “Zachary, what have you been doing? You gotta cut out playing basketball and those other sports so hard buddy,” a nurse said. I was only eight when a nurse told me this. For a week I laid in the hospital thinking down on myself. I was moving closer and closer to believing that I couldn’t be an effective athlete.
My father always told me that I could do all things as long as I put my head and heart into it. This was the first time in my life that I understood my disability. The words that my father branded into my soul were quickly overshadowed.
Over the years I tried to cope with my asthma. The main problem was, that my mother has asthma, and her father had asthma. Most doctors say that a child will grow out of their asthma. They encourage the fact that it will pass. My mother over fifty and she is on more than four asthma medications. For her, just to walk up the stairs is hell.
But there is another side of asthma than just medical. It is the emotional and mental aspect of it; the psychological effect on its sufferers. Most people without asthma do not know that asthma is a very hard thing to cope with. While growing up, a young person already has so many pressures and things to deal with.
As I grew up my parents focused on helping me gain strength and knowledge about my asthma, but no matter what they said I still felt that I was inferior to others. Peers will make the smallest imperfection a big deal. While I played sports, they laughed at me because I had an inhaler. They would take my medicine from me and spray it just for a quick laugh. Making fun of my breathing was also apart of the repertoire. They’d breathe rapidly and pretend like they were taking a puff of the inhaler, mocking me everyday. For this reason I could not stand my asthma, and I hated myself because of it.
The older I got, it seems the worst my asthma got. I went from one medication to two; two medications to three; three medications to four. I had at least one asthma attack a year and I was withheld from classes at least three weeks of the year because of asthmatic problems. Like most asthmatics, running and playing alone did not trigger my asthma. Allergies and asthma coincide. If you have a problem with asthma, you most likely will have an uncontroll...

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...s just like they learn how to deal with people with AIDS and cancer. The victims of these illnesses don’t want pity and neither do asthmatics. There are some things you just don’t say or do, out of respect. Asthmatics just want a fair chance to be there best without being second-guessed and excluded.

Work Cited

“All about asthma: Greater Expectations”. National Asthma Campaign. Oct. 2002. 06 Feb. 2003. http://www.asthma.org.uk/about/an061.php “Asthmattack”. American Lung Association. 06 Feb. 2003 http://209.208.153.222/asthmattack/ “Asthma And Older People”. American Lung Association. Mar. 2002. 06 Feb. 2003. http://www.lungusa.org/asthma/astastage.html “Minnie Driver voices concern about asthma”. USA Today. 03 Jan. 2003. 06 Jan. 2003. http://www.ustoday.com/news/health/spotlighthealth/2003-02-03-driver-asthma_x.htm “Teens And Asthma”. American Lung Association. Mar. 2002. 06 Feb. 2003. http://www.lungusa.org/asthma/astteenast.html “Videocams Give New Views of Child Asthma”. ABC News. 16 Dec. 2002. 06 Feb 2003.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/wnt_001216_asthma_feature.html

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